The only way to get a 100% true Time Crisis experience is by purchasing the actual Namco arcade guns. Unfortunately, they are either very expensive (new) or hard to come by (used). The real arcade guns (RAG) can be hard to find too, but they're typically under $40. Usually when I see a used Namco gun it is 2 - 4 times that much.

I think you can get pretty close to the same experience with the RAG.

Recoil/blowback - Using a 24V power supply seems to work just fine and that goes a really long way to improve the recoil. I'd take the 24V blowback (or even the 12V) any day over the non-sliding recoil of other guns.

Build - Yes, the plastic is lighter/cheaper than the Namco guns, but the two that I have seem to be built just fine for home use. Aside from a little bit of play in the slides, there is no rattling. Most of the damage at the arcade comes from people banging the guns around while putting them in the holsters or from being dropped. We keep ours in a drawer in the cab to avoid the holster problem.

Balance - just add some weight (scrap metal or similar) inside the grip when you have it disassembled to work on the circuitry.

Color - have you tried using plastic bonding spray paint with a layer of clear coat? You're dismantling the gun anyway so it should be easy to hit it with some paint while you're working on the electronics. It works well on xbox and playstation controllers.

So I think the RAG is a very good alternative to the Namco gun. As with all arcade builds, original parts aren't always a viable option.

Sorry for not replying sooner, been distracted with too many projects.

So I had problems with using the built-in recoil circuit. It needs to be isolated from the aimtrak usb.

I ordered a bunch of different opto-couplers and got sidetracked.

I bought a couple of these TinkerKit mosfet relays for cheap from an MCM sale.Normally they are a bit expensive for what they really are, but still much cheaper than ordering the recoil kit from Ultimarc (unless he starts selling just the circuit).

On the left connector, the pins (top to bottom) +5v, pulse signal, Gnd. 5v and gnd come from the usb which you can either splice up a usb cable, or just solder to the pads on the aimtrak module.On the right connector, (I desoldered the connector). pins (top to bottom) Power GND, Power +V (up to 24), Solenoid +, Solenoid -.

I benched it a week ago. Worked great. Nice a powerful.

Will post final product when (if) I ever get around to finishing it. Right now I'm trying to get a CRT light gun (usb2gun) system up and running.

is this the item i should be buying, along with '8 pin plug and socket set' selected.

-) remove wires

I don't know how to safe remove the Video wires from the PCB, is there some basic tips you can give me, can I simply use tweezers? I also noticed you removed the pedal port, is that necessary in order to make this mod work, normally i think it wouldn't matter, but if it didn't then I wonder why you removed it.

-) black wires

the 3 black wires that are attached to the bottom of the pcb, were they attached via soldering, and what exact wires am i meant to use for that part, the camera only showed it for a split second, you did mention the word 'jumper' though.

-) 5v power supply for testing.

I don't have that 'seperate power supply 5v grounded' machine you do to test the solenoid, is there some other way to test the solenoid, i take it i can skip that?

Sorry for not replying sooner, been distracted with too many projects.

So I had problems with using the built-in recoil circuit. It needs to be isolated from the aimtrak usb.

I ordered a bunch of different opto-couplers and got sidetracked.

I bought a couple of these TinkerKit mosfet relays for cheap from an MCM sale.Normally they are a bit expensive for what they really are, but still much cheaper than ordering the recoil kit from Ultimarc (unless he starts selling just the circuit).

On the left connector, the pins (top to bottom) +5v, pulse signal, Gnd. 5v and gnd come from the usb which you can either splice up a usb cable, or just solder to the pads on the aimtrak module.On the right connector, (I desoldered the connector). pins (top to bottom) Power GND, Power +V (up to 24), Solenoid +, Solenoid -.

I benched it a week ago. Worked great. Nice a powerful.

Will post final product when (if) I ever get around to finishing it. Right now I'm trying to get a CRT light gun (usb2gun) system up and running.

Sorry to bring up an almost dead topic, but how did this work out? I'm considering picking up one of the RAG guns and wiring it up.

Well, I spent all day and got everything hooked up, but the solenoid recoil only moved maybe 1/8 inch (~3mm).

Sorry to bump such an old thread, but I'm pulling my hair out here and was hoping someone would be gracious enough to help me out.

I purchased an Aimtrak gun with recoil to use primarily as a Guncon 2 on a PS2 I have in an arcade cab due to me removing the CRT and putting a LCD monitor in it. I bought one of those prepackaged guns in the Guncon 1 shells sold by Ultimark that already has everything setup and ready to go, including the recoil kit. My plan was to transfer the guts over to a Real Arcade Gun/Jolt Gun, like others had mentioned in this thread.

When the gun first arrived I tested it out on my PS2 using the 24v power adapter that the Real Arcade Gun uses. The solenoid in the Aimtrak gun worked fine, got a nice thump as expected and everything worked good with the PS2 setup as a Guncon 2.

Transferred the Aimtrak internals over tonight to my Real Arcade Gun. The only changes at all I did to the setup (besides some wire splicing) was using the original RAG solenoid and doing away with the small PCB used for A and B buttons by running wires directly to the buttons on the RAG.

Got everything together and everything works except for the recoil. It just barely moves. It recoils when it's supposed to where it only recoils if you shoot onscreen (not offscreen) but it's just a tiny bit, barely enough to even move. I know you can adjust the recoil in software, but I've never even hooked this to a PC at any time, and prior to transferring the internals over the recoil with the original Aimtrak solenoid worked fine. I wouldn't think that would be the issue.....

I checked the voltage on my PSU and I'm getting 24v at the connector and also at the +/- terminals on the little recoil Aimtrak PCB. I tried to get a reading on the S1 & S2 connection where the voltage goes out to the solenoid, but I'm barely even getting 1 volt. When pulling the trigger with the gun aimed off screen I get 0 (as expected) but I get around .3 volt when it does activate. Granted I'm twisted like an octopus trying to aim the gun and hold the multimeter tips, plus I don't exactly have the fanciest meter in the world, but it's obviously not getting anywhere near the 24v it should.

Any ideas at all are appreciated!

Edit...

Looks like the recoil setting was my problem. Apparently pulling all the connections from the board reset everything to default, including the recoil to 0. After hooking to a PC and running the Aimtrak utility to change the recoil value everything seems to work alright.

I wanted to do the same thing and had asked about getting 4 of them. Final price was like $150 or something crazy like that for a $48 item. Shipping was twice the cost of the actual shells, and I think it was going to take 2-3 weeks to get it to me.

In any case, it isn't worth it. You won't have the mounting hardware that slides the top and holds the solenoid. You'd have to fabricate that and get it to fit into the shells. Then you'd have to get a hose for the gun, and build something to mount the hose on the inside so that it doesn't yank out when you pull on it. If you have skills doing that then go for it, you'll save maybe $100 after shipping costs and buying material to do it yourself.

I was able to get my hands on (2) all black super jolt / the real arcade guns with foot pedal. I figured out how to power the original gun controller board via the AimTrak so that in theory I did not have to use the AimTrak recoil board. After some testing, everything worked just fine - even the foot pedal. The only problem I have now is that the foot pedal is mapped to P2 on the AimTrak board & I cannot figure out how to use it in MAME but the PC does recognize the press when I press it. I guess the only downside to this is since the AimTrak is not controlling the recoil, anytime you press the trigger it recoils - even on off screen shots (to my understanding, if you have the AimTrak recoil board, it will not fire when off screen). With that said, I do not know if the AimTrak recoil has auto-fire but this original gun board does

I guess the only downside to this is since the AimTrak is not controlling the recoil, anytime you press the trigger it recoils - even on off screen shots (to my understanding, if you have the AimTrak recoil board, it will not fire when off screen). With that said, I do not know if the AimTrak recoil has auto-fire but this original gun board does

It's not just the because of the recoil board that the aimtrak will not make the recoil work when shooting off screen, it's the aimtrak itself which is generating the signal pulseI have myself 2 JoltGuns too, and I kept their original recoil board. I just soldered the aimtrak recoil wire where it need to be in order to activate the original control board (just a little bit of soldering and 2-3 cuts on the PCB were enough) instead of the original trigger.

I guess the only downside to this is since the AimTrak is not controlling the recoil, anytime you press the trigger it recoils - even on off screen shots (to my understanding, if you have the AimTrak recoil board, it will not fire when off screen). With that said, I do not know if the AimTrak recoil has auto-fire but this original gun board does

It's not just the because of the recoil board that the aimtrak will not make the recoil work when shooting off screen, it's the aimtrak itself which is generating the signal pulseI have myself 2 JoltGuns too, and I kept their original recoil board. I just soldered the aimtrak recoil wire where it need to be in order to activate the original control board (just a little bit of soldering and 2-3 cuts on the PCB were enough) instead of the original trigger.

Those guns rock, cheap, heavy and very fun to play with

Could you point me where to solder the recoil wire & cut on the PCB? I had no clue what the recoil wire actually did so I left it alone.

Edit: Since you soldered in the AimTrak recoil wire, do you still have the auto-fire working? Or did it bypass that PCB entirely?

Could you point me where to solder the recoil wire & cut on the PCB? I had no clue what the recoil wire actually did so I left it alone.

Edit: Since you soldered in the AimTrak recoil wire, do you still have the auto-fire working? Or did it bypass that PCB entirely?

I have no more autofire, I'm just having recoil when the aimtrak want's me too.Well, and when I want too, I rewired the Joytech NORMAL/GUNCON switch to ON/OFF my recoil (I have to play silently sometimes )

As for the control board, it's a bit old for me to remember excatly what's the minimum to do for it. As I say I hacked many things in the PCBI think I started by cutting and unsoldering every wires comming to the PCB : (attachment 02.JPG)

Then I removed the big circuit on the top (red square with a cross) and the pin to control the bottom-recoil-circuit is marked with the red arrow.(attachment 03.JPG)

Could you point me where to solder the recoil wire & cut on the PCB? I had no clue what the recoil wire actually did so I left it alone.

Edit: Since you soldered in the AimTrak recoil wire, do you still have the auto-fire working? Or did it bypass that PCB entirely?

I have no more autofire, I'm just having recoil when the aimtrak want's me too.Well, and when I want too, I rewired the Joytech NORMAL/GUNCON switch to ON/OFF my recoil (I have to play silently sometimes )

As for the control board, it's a bit old for me to remember excatly what's the minimum to do for it. As I say I hacked many things in the PCBI think I started by cutting and unsoldering every wires comming to the PCB : (attachment 02.JPG)

Then I removed the big circuit on the top (red square with a cross) and the pin to control the bottom-recoil-circuit is marked with the red arrow.(attachment 03.JPG)

Thanks for the help. I was able to solder the recoil wire to that bottom pin in the picture and it seemed to work fine (recoil when on screen and no recoil when off screen) except for when I put the gun in auto-fire mode - it acted as if it was still in normal (single recoil) mode when the trigger was held. I think I will try to somehow use the recoil wire when the gun is in normal mode and then disconnect the wire connection when put in auto fire mode. I think the problem has to possibly do with the AimTrak not having any auto fire feature? Anyways, thanks again.

SlyBlueFox what do you think of the recoil, is it worth it, does it make the experience better, i think you need to use a more powerful power supply to make it more like the arcade.

Yeah the original power supply for the recoil is not powerfull enough to have the same effects as a real Time Crisis arcade recoil.I used an old laptop power supply (20V) to boost (mostly because it was plug and play with the gun power cable) it and it's really similar now in terms of recoilAs for a better experience, I guess it depends...some people don"t like recoil at all, some like it

I agree with argonlefou about the original power supply & the experience in general. The original power supply recoil is fine to me - its not bad but could be better. In general, I think that recoil is cool & makes for a "neater" experience. Now on to the guide.

There are a few options you can do for the gun assuming it is brand new & have not removed the chip yet in the gun as was the case previoulsy in this thread. If you have removed the chip, Option #2 is pretty much the same thing.

Option #1Do not utilize the AimTrak recoil wire & use the RealArcade gun as is. You will retain the normal single fire option & be able to turn on the autofire as well. When you shoot off screen, the gun will recoil.

Option #2Utilize the AimTrak recoil wire & use the RealArcade gun as is. You will retain the normal single fire option & the autofire will no longer work when switched on. When you shoot off screen, the gun will not recoil.

Option #3Utilize the AimTrak recoil wire via switch & use the RealArcade gun as is. You will retain the normal single fire option & the autofire will work when switched on but only when the AimTrak recoil wire is disconnected. When you shoot off screen, the gun will not recoil only when AimTrak recoil wire is connected.

For all options, here are the steps I used (you can either directly solder to the switch mentioned or t-tap to the switch wire). All extra wire I used came from inside the old PS1 cord that was cut off. Gun needs to be in NorGun mode to function correctly. Disclaimer, you will most likely need to do some testing to the gun to confirm all wire colors I mention correlate. For the +5V & ground wires, go to here: PS1 Controller & confirm the pin 4 & 5 wire colors at the actual gun (open the old PS1 controller connector & follow thw colors to the gun). For the button wires, you will need to test which connection at each button is +5V & ground with a multimeter (the second gun I did was opposite wires of this gun). Read all following steps before doing anything.

1) Open up the gun

2) Disconnect all wire connectors from the main PS1 board that can be disconnected

3a) It is better space wise to cut the micro USB cable end off & solder the wires directly to the AimTrak board (similar to if you were to buy an AimTrak gun from Ultimarc).

3b) If you do not want to solder the wires, remove the black rubber casing from end of micro USB cable - this allows space for the switch board. Use a knife to split along the line on the side & gradually pull apart. Then remove the metal casing that houses the old CRT LED located on the switch board - start in the back since that part is not soldered then bend/cut to eventually remove it - just be careful not to damage anything.

4) Cut all wires where the PS1 cable connects to the board but leave the black & red wires as long as you can

13) Install IR filter (if you have one; I had one but was getting a better signal with it off so I removed mine)

Option #114) Close gun up & enjoy

Option #214) Solder a wire between the PS1 board point & AimTrak recoil - do not remove the chip as shown in the picture

15) Close gun up & enjoy

Option #314) Remove NorGun/GunCon switch legs from the board & try to utilize this switch. If you cannot, just desolder/remove the old switch totally & use a new switch (my NorGun/GunCon switch legs were brittle & broke off so I had to use a new switch - got mine from RadioShack)

15) Solder jumper wire between #1 & #2 where this switch used to be

16) Solder a wire between the PS1 board point & #2 on NorGun/GunCon switch/new switch

18) If using a new switch, attach new switch to board - you will need size #2 screws, lock washers, & nuts (HomeDepot). Drill out holes on switch to make big enough for screws. Drill out holes on board to make big enough for screws. Attach new switch to board but insulate with electrical tape otherwise it will ground out & not work at all (took a while to figure that one out). Example picture - board goes inbetween lock washers.

19) Close gun up & enjoy

I hope this helps. Also, here is the completed gun with Option #3.

Edit: Step numbering was off & added step clarificationsEdit2: Someone was asking about this so I went back & made a few grammatical changes to clarify a few things

I've been following this thread on and off for about a year now and thought that I would take the plunge and obtain one of The Real Arcade Guns, I bought mine for £16 without any power supply, but quickly found out it needs a 12V 1.2A supply. Not a problem.

I thought I'd try and take this one step further and am having imported a Time Crisis foot pedal to see what more can be done for a nice arcade setup.

I've built my own retropi arcade, utilizing Xinmo and Raspberry Pi 3. It is a very nice build and, figure the perfect way to complete the setup is with time crisis pedal + gun with recoil.

I've been looking over the last generous contribution documenting each steps and 3 different options to proceed with this mod, and I was wondering if I can clarify with the OP , is there supposed to be a step 4 or 5 that I am missing? The steps jump to 6

I also include picture of the power supply for anyone that gets one of these without and doesn't know what voltage/current requirements. I measured the power pin and in case anybody is wondering it appears to be a 5.5mm. Please someone correct me if this is wrong. I'm wondering if I used a slightly beefier power supply whether the thing would draw a bit more than it does vanilla and give a bit more of a recoil.

I read previously in this thread that other person who had obtained genuine Namco pedal from arcade had also noted the unit has 3 pins, this seems odd unless there is separate signal for reload and cover, and it is just sent to the machine on separate channel + ground. It's either that or the unit might require some kind of power, but that seems silly, since it's ultimately only needing to be a microswitch. I will let you know once I investigate further.

I converted my The Real Arcade gun last night, it took about 8 hours to make all the necessary considerations and soldering, mainly because I was following this guide and wanted to make absolutely sure I made no mistakes! I took lots of pictures along the way because I see that one of the guys was asking about more pictures on the steps. It was not so hard, the key is not rushing and having a nice dremel tool and gluegun to make life a bit easier on you.

I followed the trace as well, and I think that I've missed something for the recoil. Everything except the recoil works. The aimtrak gun is nice. I've taken like about 24 pictures of the process and would be fairly happy to show how to wire the trigger in. I didn't connect all the other periphery buttons because that is easy thing to do just signal and ground... I am mostly interested in the recoil, and it was kind of a shame after doing the MOD this still did not work.

However, I wonder if the USB 5v 2A to 12V 1A won't necessarily be powerful enough. I'm using an anker USB hub which has 5V 4A and I thought it would be enough to step to 12V. Should have just got myself a standard 12V 2A supply for the Gun. The only shame about picking up this gun for 16 quid was that it didn't come with the original, so I'm not sure if it's something I've done wrong or not. I did essentially "option 2" which was described in the last 2 updates on the forum, do I need to actually desolder the chip as well for that to work?

Jump wire/solder point for solenoid. Does this look right? What am I missing!!?

Would someone be so kind to assist me in clarifying exactly what I need wired for the recoil? As at this stage am not sure if the issue is the power supply, how about just connecting up directly to test solenoid? It's 12V 1A right? I will upload more pictures of the process to do this mod, since I was really thorough in showing each step I think others wanting to do this might benefit from it. If anyone can help me though with the recoil I'd appreciate it I've lots of studying to do and I am guessing this is a REALLY simple issue to fix and I've missed something basic. Maybe I just need to turn it on? I used the ultimarc tool and tried 'recoil test', nothing, I think I might be missing a wire or proper PSU.

Any ideas?

Hell, I uploaded a ton of pics too to make this easier for others. The only thing (sadly) that didn't work is recoil, and I'm guessing it's just one wire or bad psu... am just repeating myself now.. hehe

Your interior gun wiring colors look a little different than mine, so I will try to help the best I can.

1) The step numbering was off. Accidentally skipped steps 4 & 5 when numbering but all steps are there.

2) The original power supply for my guns is 12V 1.2A - I have read in this thread of someone using a higher output power supply that provided more recoil. As far as if this is ok for the solenoid/gun internal parts, I have no clue.

3) Does your gun red LED light up when you press the trigger? Make sure the gun is in NorGun mode before plugging in the USB. The gun chip needs to receive +5V power in order for it to work without that big chip being removed (as far as I understand).

4) Make sure you soldered the correct +5V & ground wires on the gun chip to the AimTrak. Go to this link: PS1 Controller, scroll down & confirm that the points you have soldered to are pin 5 (+5V) & pin 4 (ground). Open the end of the original PS1 controller connection & just match it up then follow the correct wire colors. Mine were red & black.

5) Make sure in the AimTrak utility that you have the recoil power all the way up. Some people have said that was causing their recoil to not work.

I am in the process of doing my other gun & I will upload an interior picture of it completed. Probably will try to finish it later this week when I have time - I am probably about 75% done.

Edit: Here are the pins on my gun board using your picture (assuming they are the same). Just confirm like I mentioned above.

I see some have removed the big chip, others have not. What are the pro's con's to that? I assume to remove it since its not providing any service?

Also, I see one person suggested replacing one of the slide switches with a radio shack one, why not just use the existing one?

Thanks.

From what I understand, you need to remove the big chip in order to use the recoil if you are not providing +5V to the gun. The only real function the big chip provides is the ability to do the auto-fire, otherwise, it is just there. The original gun also has a programming mode for auto-reload but I would not think that would be applicable for this since it is not a PS1 - although I have not tested it.

I only replaced the slide switch so that I can use it to activate/deactivate the recoil wire in order to use the auto-fire. The switch on the board is very fragile & long story short, it was easier to simply replace it since I had to solder wires to the switch.

OK! Trigger is working now and registering in software. So It's left clicking on trigger.

The red led is flashing now. But the solenoid is not firing.

It's connected to a 12V 1.2A power supply, and Aimtrak +5V as suggested. I think I'm missing something silly now..

Thanks for all the great tips.. pretty much should have figured out the correct connections myself by checking wiring diagram and connector properly, so others attempting this please do be sure to do this.

I'm tempted if this continues to look at ways to do this with the original board... but I've come this far... so close, but no recoil cigar ) yet. If anyone has any ideas please hit me up! cheers &

2) I'm guessing I wouldn't be seeing 12V at the solenoid wires, since I test directly with a power supply there and it works, yet with wired solenoid doesn't. Power supply is tested so sure it's not that.

3) Before, the ground and VCC5 was in the wrong place, there was no LED flashing. Now the LED flashes, but still no recoil.

I'm wondering if I might just take away the existing PCB and create my own for the recoil since it's getting frustrating now, I've taken this apart like 3 times.. I think what it is I am missing must be fairly simple, maybe my soldering is bad. But I don't thinkso, I just took the whole thing apart and re-soldered it all, and had the same problem.

Would it be easy to replace the existing PCB with a new one? I see some others have done this. Maybe I can take off the component on PCB used for controlling it and make my own circuit, I might do this if it continues to be problematic.

2) I'm guessing I wouldn't be seeing 12V at the solenoid wires, since I test directly with a power supply there and it works, yet with wired solenoid doesn't. Power supply is tested so sure it's not that.

3) Before, the ground and VCC5 was in the wrong place, there was no LED flashing. Now the LED flashes, but still no recoil.

I'm wondering if I might just take away the existing PCB and create my own for the recoil since it's getting frustrating now, I've taken this apart like 3 times.. I think what it is I am missing must be fairly simple, maybe my soldering is bad. But I don't thinkso, I just took the whole thing apart and re-soldered it all, and had the same problem.

Would it be easy to replace the existing PCB with a new one? I see some others have done this. Maybe I can take off the component on PCB used for controlling it and make my own circuit, I might do this if it continues to be problematic.

Best wishes,Adam

If the AimTrak recoil wire is not connected to either the AimTrak board or the pin on the gun board, the gun should function correctly as if it were connected to a PS1. Maybe try to make sure the recoil works in that matter to confirm the gun board is functioning correctly? The gun needs to be in NorGun mode and the other switch can just be in Normal mode. You can do all this testing with the gun opened up so you can try a few different things. It's a pain opening and closing it up; did that multiple times while I was originally working on this. Let me know what you come up with.

Recoil did work for me on the "Named" namco knockoffs until I grounded the solenoid's mounting plate. I am not sure why....

If you look at my post here, there is a small screw under the metal bracket that the solenoid is attached to. There is wire attached from that screw to a ground on the aimtrak. It's worth noting that it was grounded o the original optical board as well. Maybe your gun has something similar?

Also I didn't put my guns together until I verified that the electronics were working... You will probably save yourself some headaches by doing the same.

Hi, first thank you very much for all the information, i don't understand the point 7 (Solder/t-tap a wire between the PS1 trigger NO black wire & AimTrak trigger)Where can i solder the cable on the PS1? Please see the picture.

I followed all the steps but when i connect the gun to pc, first aimtrak utility it detects the gun but the cursor doesn't move and sometimes the gun fires automatically without stopping and without squeezing the trigger. Please any idea about this? Thank you